A short border handbook: a journey through the immigrant's labyrinth

Description

An exhilarating and darkly comical exploration of migration and borders from an Albanian who grew up in Hoxha's madhouse, longing to cross to Greece, only to find another seam of absurdities and disappointments on his eventual arrival. After spending his childhood in Albania, and fantasizing about life across the border, Gazmend Kapllani escapes to Greece—only to get banged up in a detention center. As he and his fellow immigrants try to find jobs, they begin to plan their future lives in Greece, imagining success that is always beyond their grasp. The sheer absurdity of both their plans and their new lives is overwhelming. Both ironic and emotional, Kapllani interweaves the story of his experience with meditations upon "border syndrome"—a mental state, as much as a geographical experience—to create a brilliantly observed, amusing, and perceptive debut. And a timely one at that, given that immigration is again at the forefront of politics both in the US and Europe.